Thuy Nguyen | Fashion360 CEO & Director

Program Lead & Product Dev Expert

A true advocate for the Australian fashion industry, Thuy Nguyen has devoted more than 26 years to her trade and to the development of fashion businesses. Combined with an analytical mind, Thuy pays meticulous attention to detail and possesses excellent competency in her technical expertise with the innate ability to apply her creative flair to beautifying the human form.

Thuy immersed herself in the textile clothing and footwear industries working for numerous fashion companies including Addable, Daniel Lightfoot and Maiocchi whilst freelancing for many other smaller businesses such as Le Femme Collections, Sass, Little Workers and Montego Designs. Aside from these fulltime commitments, she also managed to operate a small bridal couture business, a creative outlet that allowed her pure freedom of expression. Thuy then positioned herself to become a Vocational Education Trainer (VET) for 3 years, which then seamlessly shaped a pathway into her previous position of Fashion Development Manager for QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA), a venture company of the university QUT set up to support Creative Start-ups and SMEs.

Thuy says that the 8.5 years at CEA was the environment she needed to transfer all the knowledge and skills that she had accumulated over the years into promoting and driving early-stage fashion start-ups and emerging designers. The opportunity allowed her to utilise all her experience to develop structured Fashion Business Programs under the sub brand, Fashion360, as well as provide 1:1 mentoring and Product Development Services to over 200 fashion creatives.

Her specialist areas include design and range planning, styling, pattern development, sampling, production management and specialised grading. Her expertise has moved across a diverse market from women’s, men’s and children’s fashion attire to corporate wear, swimwear, active wear and through to exclusive bridal and couture one-offs. Thuy’s passion for ensuring that our future fashion creatives understand the necessary components required to produce a quality, market-ready fashion brand, is ingrained from the first day they seek her services, until the day they unveil their final concept for market.

2020 brought challenges for the university sector resulting in the closure of QUT CEA. Thuy identified the silver lining within this obstacle and knew it was her time to lead by example, hence, proceeded to acquire the Fashion360 brand for her new Company, Agile Ambitions Pty Ltd. She has since implemented her own platform to provide design and product development services as well as deliver programs focused on upskilling Fashion enthusiasts and provide early-stage to emerging fashion businesses with all the required tools and information to running a successful and sustainable business.

Aside from the extraordinary commitment Thuy has demonstrated to the industry and to our past and present designers, she’s also one of the truest people you’ll ever meet!

Matt Jensen | Founder & CEO, M.J. Bale

Fashion360 Ambassador

Matt Jensen is the Founder & CEO of Australian menswear brand M.J. Bale. Founded by Matt in 2009, M.J. Bale is an Australian-owned gentlemen’s clothier making garments of integrity for men of character. They pride themselves on their tailoring expertise with natural fibres, particularly Australian merino wool, and measure themselves against their all-important brand tenets of Provenance, Authenticity, Integrity and Character. M.J. Bale are The Official Tailor to the Australian Test cricket side & Wallabies, as well as a host of professional and cultural organisations, and operate 59 stores across Australia.

The son of a woolgrower and passionate advocate for sustainably-produced natural fibres and farm regeneration, Matt has pioneered the rise of ‘single-source’ wool products and created a unique customer rebate model that reinvests in biodiversity preservation. In 2021 he made M.J. Bale ‘Net Zero Now’, becoming the first Australian fashion retailer to be 100% carbon neutral and Climate Active certified for products and organisation. He also oversaw the world’s first Zero-Emission Wool program, which saw M.J. Bale work with the carbon positive Kingston farm, Tasmania, and seaweed producer Sea Forest to reduce Merino sheep methane emissions to near undetectable levels.

Fleur Richardson | Creative Director/owner, Leina & Fleur

Business & Sales Strategist

Fleur Richardson's ragtrade experience spans across many sectors. She started her career in swim, activewear and menswear before finally setting her business roots firmly in womenswear with her own brand L&F (formerly Leina & Fleur). 

Coming into her tenth year at L&F, Fleur has a strong understanding and love for design and business operations. 

Operating out of her Burleigh Heads studio and employing a team of 25 staff, Fleur is passionate about sustaining her Australian Made business and creating a brand that provides "Confidence that Fits" for the busy professional woman.

Jane Morley | Designer, Boom Shankar

Branding, Design & Planning Expert

Jane Morley is a fashion practitioner and researcher who has lectured in fashion design for the past eight years, holding positions at the Queensland University of Technology and RMIT University in Melbourne. After working as a fashion designer for brands such as Colorado and Easton Pearson, Jane lectured at the Queensland University of Technology in design studio and sustainability courses while completing a practice-based Masters exploring Conceptual art and Conceptual fashion design process. During this time, Jane also mentored emerging designers at the QUT Creative Enterprise Australia (CEA) fashion incubator and worked as the Design Manager on the AKIN Collection. Jane then gained a position at RMIT University where she taught courses about identifying new fashion markets and led design studio courses for students across the four-year RMIT Bachelor of Fashion (Design) (Honours) program as well as first year Masters students from the RMIT Master of Fashion (Design) program. Since 2020, Jane decided to fully immerse herself back into industry after approximately 10 years of being an Academic. She is currently designing and strategising for Australian brand, Boom Shankar.

Julian Lowe | National Sales & Business Development Manager, Coritex

Textiles Printing Expert

Julian Lowe is a print entrepreneur, currently working as the National Sales and Marketing Manager for Coritex Digital Print Media. Coritex distributes print ready textiles for the activewear, soft signage and interior furnishings print industries. 

He has been involved in various forms of digital textile printing, importing and distribution for 26 years, and has travelled extensively through SE Asia, China and Europe, studying and learning new business ideas and technology. 

Over the years, Julian has a number of businesses that incorporate collaboration, focusing on encouraging Australian Manufacturing and local production, from Aussie Cotton Tees, using Australian grown, spun, knitted, and sewn Cotton from Queensland’s St George Area, to prove that an Australian sourced and produced apparel brand could be viable: to Aus Studio Collective with the mission to provide a platform for fashion start-ups, established apparel businesses, and students to bring some, if not all of their apparel manufacturing to Australia, through access to local digital textile printers, cutters, pattern makers and the huge network of local makers: and The Textile Hub that provided long lasting and environmentally friendly natural fibre and Nylon digital printing services and a pathway to local apparel manufacturing.

Julian now specialises in digital textile print, offering advice and technical solutions to the printers, and assists buyers to connect with suitable print suppliers.

Genéa Morgan | Brand, Business & Digital Consultant

Marketing, Digital & E-com Expert

A creative at heart with a natural business aptitude, Genéa has over 15 years industry experience and works across the ‘whole picture’. Specialising in digital footprints, Genéa consults on marketing, ecommerce and digital advertising for fashion & lifestyle brands. From brand conception to reality, Genéa believes in providing streamlined solutions and giving clarity around driving revenue and growth across your ecommerce and digital spaces.

Mark Gustowski | Managing Director, Innovation Architects

Innovation & Investment Expert

Mark Gustowski is an experienced investment executive and has worked with innovative, fast-growth businesses for over 20 years. A significant portion of that time focussed on equity investments for startups in the food, ag and FMCG sectors. Mark has been involved in a number of his own startups in the biotech, real-estate tech, edu-tech and FMCG spaces, as well as an angel investor, and has designed and delivered investment and accelerator programs across Victoria, the ACT and Queensland.

Currently sitting on the boards of a number investee companies, Mark supports strategic direction, structuring, capital raising and market strategy. He has worked with Australian governments at all levels on program structure and delivery, policy implementation and investment.  With key experience across Australia, SE Asia, the UK and the US, Mark has worked with startups, scaleups and corporates in developing market channels, investment strategies and go-to-market initiatives.  Following his BAppSci, he also completed the Venture Capital Executives Program at the HAAS Business School (UC Berkeley) on a Victorian Employer’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI) scholarship,  is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), the Australian-ASEAN Business Council, and the Australia Thailand Business Council. 

Keith Jones | Director, Ernest & Lloyd

Financial Management Expert

Keith provides a wealth of experience in assisting clients develop management systems particularly in relation to financial system structuring and financial problem solving. His technical skills have assisted clients in restructuring existing operations, expansion development strategy and capital raising via preferred debt / equity financing structures.

Thea Speechley | Founder, RawAssembly

Sustainability Expert

A creative leader and entrepreneur with 25 years of textile and apparel experience. Thea is known for advocating change, sharing knowledge and propelling cutting edge product and fibre innovation in the realms of sustainability and circular resource efficiency.

Thea possesses comprehensive fashion industry experience. A knowledge base that extends from fibre growing, raw material production, apparel design and manufacturing, all the way through to branding and leadership of fashion and textile companies.

A combination of this industry experience and recognition of the need for change was the inspiration for Thea to establish RawAssembly™, a global responsible fashion magazine and sourcing event that provides responsible sourcing and manufacturing networks for a renewed fashion industry, driven by innovation and a focus on renewable materials.

Thea works as an active contributor to industry research groups, roundtables, reports and has presented and facilitated working groups with the Sherman Institute of Culture & Ideas, The Institute of Frontier Materials, Queensland University of technology, International Cotton Advisory Committee and the Technical Advisory Committee, shaping workforce skills for the future.

Belinda Breakspear | Partner, McCullough Robertson

Intellectual Property Expert

Belinda Breakspear (Partner) is a lawyer in McCullough Robertson Lawyers’ Digital & Intellectual Property team.  Belinda works with a wide range of start-up to high profile clients in the creative industries across Australia, including Une Piece swimwear, Queensland Ballet and La Boite Theatre.

She advises on intellectual property protection, commercialisation and strategy, as well as key legal considerations when conducting business in the digital age (such as privacy, Australian Consumer Law, social media and media law considerations).  

Tracey Mathers | Managing Director, Tracey Mathers P/L

Tracey Mathers is a trusted advisor to those wanting to build and maintain success in business. With retail running through her veins, third generation retailer Tracey Mathers has been continuing the family tradition for over 25 years. As the granddaughter of the founder of Mathers Shoes it was inevitable she would become a leading retailer in her field. Having had up to six stores she has learnt to deal with all areas of running a successful business.

With 35 years’ experience in both the retail and the corporate world Tracey has a wealth of knowledge in all different aspects that she passes on now through her work as a professional advisor, speaker and mentor, having sold her retail stores in July 2016.

During her 25 years as Managing Director of Tracey Mathers Shoe Studio she realised very early on that if the business was to have the success she desired, she had to have the most amazing team of people working with her that could see her vision and want to work closely with her to achieve her desired success, all the while developing themselves (what she describes as) a killer sales attitude. She wanted to have the most amazing team that everybody else wanted.

Through great training, Tracey’s team did go on to help her build the business by being extremely customer focused and having a great understanding of building a rapport with clients, which led to having successful repeat business. They understood how the whole sales process worked and used it daily for success.

Tracey’s passion is people, and helping others to achieve their dream of having success in their lives has been the next natural progression in Tracey’s career path.

Tracey has been helping her clients for decades with advice on how to get the best from their lives and to make the most of their careers. She loves to see people succeed, and it gives her incredible satisfaction to know she has been a part of helping them achieve their goals. With incredible honesty and great communication skills she will help you to discover what has been holding you back.

No matter what the market place tries to dictate through some of the toughest times, Tracey teaches her clients how to be resilient, stand out and create additional opportunity by staying focused on achieving success for both leaders and teams.

With longevity in a highly competitive marketplace, her strategic leadership, her understanding of the sales process for success, people management and business planning attributes has been critical to the success she has celebrated.

Peter Redding | Head of Sales (Australasia), Liberty of London

Peter Redding is a Sales and Marketing Manager with 15 years’ experience in the Asia region in Textiles, both printed and woven and retail. After mapping out a strategic entry into the Chinese market in 2011, Peter has opened an office in Shanghai and has helped to develop the Asia region for Liberty of London.

Peter’s key role now other than Australia and New Zealand is to open markets in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and region, finding partnerships, and was delighted to be in Cambodia late last year to welcome Liberty’s first partnership there.